Rechargeable batteries can be used to provide power to a wide variety of portable electronic devices, including laptop computers, tablet computers, mobile phones, personal digital assistants (PDAs), digital music players, and cordless power tools. A commonly used type of rechargeable battery is a lithium battery, which can include a lithium-ion or a lithium-polymer battery.
Lithium-polymer batteries can include cells that are packaged in flexible pouches. Such pouches are typically lightweight and inexpensive to manufacture. Moreover, these pouches may be tailored to various cell dimensions, allowing lithium-polymer batteries to be used in space-constrained portable electronic devices such as mobile phones, laptop computers, and/or digital cameras. For example, a lithium-polymer battery cell may achieve a packaging efficiency of 90-95% by enclosing rolled electrodes and electrolyte in an aluminized laminated pouch. Multiple pouches may then be placed side-by-side within a portable electronic device and electrically coupled in series and/or in parallel to form a battery for the portable electronic device.
In various embodiments, this type of battery pack design does not utilize free space in the portable electronic device that is outside of a rectangular space reserved for the battery pack. For example, a rectangular battery pack of this type may be unable to efficiently utilize free space that is curved, rounded, and/or irregularly shaped.
Hence, the use of portable electronic devices may be facilitated by improvements related to the packaging efficiency, capacity, form factor, design, and/or manufacturing of battery packs containing lithium-ion battery cells.